Recent trends in manure handling techniques have, for a variety of reasons, emphasized the collection of liquid and semiliquid manure. As in the past, the collected manure is preferably disposed of by distributing the manure as fertilizer over fields with a manure spreader.
Conventional manure spreaders typically include open faced top walls designed for the easy top loading of manure into the spreader. Transportation of liquid and semiliquid manure in such open faced spreaders, however, presents problems in that the liquid and semiliquid manure is prone to splashing and spillage out of the open top wall of the spreader.
A solution to the spillage problem of liquid and semiliquid manure from conventional top loaded manure spreaders would be to provide the spreaders with a top wall cover. Most farm facilities, however, provide for top loading of manure spreaders, and such a cover would be useful only if it did not interfere with direct top loading techniques. Moreover, any new design in manure handling equipment would have to be compatible with the limited space requirements of existing farm installations.
A cover for a manure spreader that would inhibit spillage of liquid and semiliquid manure from the spreader, but which could be shifted, within a minimum operating envelope, to a position that would allow for direct top loading of the spreader, would be a decided advantage.